Show n Tell

I'll get to Motivational Monday and what I've been up to in a couple of days. I edited these pictures the other day and I want to make sure that they get posted before I forget.

We had a great sit n sew yesterday. So much fun. They really are the best days of the month - well including the Monday sewing. Any day sewing is fun, any day spent sewing with friends - well that's priceless.

At our class on the weekend, there was a ton of show n tell that was NOT related to our class. Some very cute stuff and I thought I'd share it with you.

First up is Susan's bear. Apparently, the bear has been named Larry. A request was made for the designer yellow glasses and Larry will become a pillow that will adorn a bed in a dorm. Yeah, Larry! The pattern is Bjorn Bear from Elizabeth Hartman.

Larry with his designer yellow glasses

The other Susan in the glass made herself a Necessary Clutch. This is a very popular pattern by Emmaline Bags.  The clutch appears to be very functional with all kinds of pockets an slots inside to hold the necessary things in life. I do have a story about wallets that I MUST share with you soon.

Susan's Necessary Clutch

Then Susan went a little crazy with rope bowls. She made a larger bowl and used the WHITE plastic/nylon rope for her version.

A rope bowl

Then she really went off the rails by making a set of NESTING bowls. Now, how cute are they?

Nesting bowls

She used the same kind of cording for these bowls, but a smaller diameter. She also used a taupe/gold thread on them so they have a much different coloring. Honestly, the sky is the limit as to what you can do with these bowls. So much fun to do! I do teach classes if anyone is interested. I don't think there's any scheduled at the moment.

The nesting set of bowls

I should mention that the little one is teeny tiny and so very cute!!!!


Then Rose brought in something very special for show n tell. This is a pair of socks that she has knit. Not just an ordinary pair of socks, but socks that she made on her hand-crank "automatic" sock knitter. OH MY GOD!!!!   I so want to get my knitter up and running. I'm going to tell you all about that story in a separate post. Suffice it to say, these socks are beautiful.

Handmade socks!!

Rose also makes Vintage Inspired Pincushions. And I apologize that I DID NOT get a good photo of them. She used a silver plated goblet as the base but I covered up the goblet in the photo. Oops. Anyway, these are very beautiful and she uses vintage jewelry, ribbons and lace to dress them up.

Vintage Inspired Pincushion

 And here's another version of the pincushions. I do believe this was a sugar bowl.

Vintage inspired pincushion

Here's the best part - you can BUY the pincushions and/or the handmade socks.  Rose is having a sale at her house in Guelph. The dates are November 16 (Friday) and November 17 (Saturday). If you're interested e-mail me and I'll send you Rose's address. She has other things for sale such as quilts and rope bowls and I'm sure a whole lot more. Even better - she has a FACEBOOK page so you can get all the information for the sale on the Facebook page. Check out the name of her company - Sir Socks a Lot. I love that!!!!!


Karen was very busy over the summer and was producing KNOT bags like crazy. Here's a link to the tutorial. 

Knot bags - small ones

Then she made another type of bag which I forget the name. It's an origami bag? It was lined and very neat how you folded the fabric to make the bag. I think this is the video tutorial that shows you how. 

The medium origami bag

Then she made a LARGE one.

Large origami bag

And then she had some more bags. She was a very busy person over the summer

More origami bags

Karen also made a snowboard themed quilt for a friend. Love all the snowboard fabric. I don't remember what pattern this was.

Snowboard themed fabric

Nancy made two cushions for a chair in her home. They are residing on a chair that sits beside an antique globe (as in a globe of the world) lamp. Isn't that a cool idea?  The globe pattern came from Lori Holt's book - Spelling Bee.  

Globe cushions

And we had a guest in our class. Welcome, Beth!!!   She had been hard at work on this pattern by Laundry Basket. It's called Winter Village.

Winter Village by Laundry Basket quilts

Sorry - I didn't have enough room to take the full picture of the quilt, but it's beautiful. She's almost finished. A wee bit more of the applique to put on.

Can you imagine that I remembered all those details without writing them down? And you thought my memory was going! 

That's a very impressive show n tell.

OH WAIT - there's one more thing I have to share.  Jane was the one who recommended the book "They Left us Everything". Thanks, Jane. But even better, Jane brought in a flyer for an upcoming USED book sale. At this book sale, the authors are in alphabetical order as well as displayed by genre. START THE CAR!!!!!  Should I share the date with you? Of course, I will. Here's a link to the Facebook page. It's the Guelph Public Library that's hosting the event. Hmm - seems to be a lot happening in Guelph!   The dates are Oct 19-21.

Anyway - there's a ton of stuff happening and it's all so exciting!!!

And if that isn't enough - I'm up on QUILTsocial this week. Check out my first blog post where I show you how to add a flange to your binding. You're going to love it and it's super simple.

I've got so much more to tell you but that's it for today. I'd better make a list of topics so I don't forget those although I think I proved that my memory is not so bad!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!

Show n tell and it's ON TIME!

Don't anyone fall off their chairs, especially the girls in the table runner class! This is THE show n tell from yesterday's class.

I had a wee bit of spare time yesterday when I should have been doing something else, but I was in the mood to edit pictures and there were a lot so I went ahead and edited everything from yesterday.

It was great to get back to class and see everyone after our break over the summer. There was a LOT of non-table runner show n tell and I've got that lined up to show you this week as well.

I'm happy to report that the studio is ready for eight of us to sew today. That was not a pretty sight to clear away all the stuff. But I hadn't even unpacked from classes this past week. It was pretty bad.

To refresh everyone's memory of the table runner class, it was all about learning how to quilt. I mean stitching the three layers together. Learning new designs, taking those first steps and getting a table runner or two done in the process.

It's been a challenge for some, some are happy to bring in their output and others are happy to sit and absorb. We all have our ways of learning. I'll bring the material to the class and they can do what they want with it.

So let's go.......................  I might even remember names this is so fresh in my mind!

The first one is Susan. This was a large table runner or should I say bed runner. The idea was to quilt those large expanses with some background quilting or feathers. She has started to get some of the logs done and it's great so far. After some further suggestions on how to quilt those areas, I think she'll be good for the next class.

Susan's runner

Next up was Lynne. Lynne is struggling with free motion quilting and has decided to get familiar with her embroidery machine as a way of quilting things. I say whatever tool or method that you have to work with and you are comfortable with it - use it!!!

This is the front of Lynne's runner. She used a matching thread on the top and you can't really see the quilting, but when you look at the back? Well, that'll blow your socks off.

Lynne's runner

She found a square embroidery design that is similar to a Greek key. She quilted three large squares in the big squares of the table runner. Then in the triangles left, she matched the quilting and did it with her walking foot. It was so even and perfect. The part that she had done with the walking foot was as even as the part done with the embroidery machine.  Spectacular!  Now I'm going to issue a challenge to Lynne. She needs to learn the software that goes with her embroidery machine and she wouldn't have to do those triangles with the walking foot. I forgot to ask her why she was struggling with free motion.

I was very impressed and I tried to get a picture of the back, but the quilting doesn't show up very well. Needless to say - it was an amazing piece. Now imagine if this quilting was visible on the FRONT????

The back of Lynne's table runner

This next one belonged to JoMarie. She hasn't had a chance to quilt it yet, but the colors are so fun. It's bright and cheery and not a color combination that I've ever used but I would like to. Heck - I don't think I even have those colors in my stash. I love it though!

JoMarie's table runner

This one belongs to Kathy. Not quilted yet, but she's going to be working on it. It was basted and ready to go. She ran out of that bright background fabric so a large square in opposite corners filled in nicely. 

Kathy's table runner

The remaining photos belong to Ronda who was busy this summer. She took a class on the Westalee rulers. This is the results of her class. I'd say that she has a pretty good handle on the rulers.

Samples from Ronda's class with Westalee rulers

More samples from Ronda's class

On top of that, she also brought in a table runner that she had quilted. It's made with the tumbler block and Christmas fabric.

Rona's Christmas table runner

Not sure if you can the pattern or not, but she used one of her rulers (which looks like a light bulb when the unit is quilted standalone) and then did a free hand squiggle to the center of the next block and rotated the ruler so it looks like strings of lights. I love that concept and she did a super job with it!

Detail of the quilting

And there you have it - the show n tell from the table runner class.

That was a bit short, there were a fair number absent yesterday and a few that didn't have a show and tell.

So I'm going to send you on another show n tell. This time it's the winners from the Fall Paducah show. Some spectacular quilts. There is NO WAY a quilt of mine will ever hang in the high-end shows. I don't have the patience to spend that much time on ONE quilt. But I love to look at them.

There are a fair number of Canadians amongst the winners, including the top prize. That's exciting to see that our talent is equally recognized or that we have that caliber of talent here.

On that note, I'd better get myself organized for the day!  It's SIT and SEW!!!!!  I should snap a picture of the studio setup - there are seven very empty tables and ONE HUGE MESS in the corner where I have two sewing machines set up and I'm going to sew amongst the chaos!!

In case you did not get a chance to see the Property Brothers episode where my studio was referred to the Kingdom of Quilts - check it out. We had a blast that night and I love watching the video. And I'm happy with the results. You know sometimes this kind of thing can go bad, but we all looked great. Good editing on their part!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Life is short - cut it NOW!

I was just looking at some of the destruction created by the storm near Ottawa yesterday. I can't imagine what I would do if that happened to me. The family farm was hit by a tornado years ago. I don't seem to have ever posted those pictures or perhaps they are on my old blog. Yep - just checked and it happened in 2009 so the pictures are on my old blog.  Here's the link.

It's very scary to see the destruction that happens in seconds. I remember seeing what used to be my father's shop that sat on a concrete foundation. The tornado literally sucked the building off the concrete and shredded the wooden walls into pieces that were about the size of the palm of your hand and spread it everywhere. It was incredible to see and not easy to understand. And yet - it left most of the stuff inside the shop. Just pulled the building and ripped it apart. The weather is very weird.

The other thing that has been happening is that the number of people I know that have passed away this year. Three people from the community back home which is a lot considering the community wasn't big. People that you think will live forever - well you do when you're a kid. And there are people here as well that are passing. That brings two thoughts to my mind and also a recent conversation with my mother.

She lamented that no one lets her know what's going on. Seriously? Seriously? She is waiting for others to call her and talk. When I suggested that she pick up the phone and call someone, "Oh no - I can't do that."  I almost drove in the ditch from frustration. Why does she think that she is so special that everyone needs to call her? Drives me crazy.

Recently I've been reconnected to some people that I haven't heard from in years. People that I went to school with or people that I was well connected with and over the years, you drift apart. Well, I have plans to reconnect with them. Now we'll never go back and have the same relationship by any means, but we get to rehash the memories and you know what? I'm looking forward to it.

I hate to say with my schedule that I don't have a ton of time to do that, but I'm going to carve out some time because I think it's very important. I also think it's important that we spend time with our current friends. We're all busy and we need to make time. If we don't, they'll be gone. I do manage to work that in by having Sit n Sew days at my house or the Monday sewing. Yes - sad to say that all my friends at the moment are quilters! I'm OK with that.

Now here's the irony of the above story. I was digging out fabric to start a new project. What color am I going to use? I could use purple since I don't often dig into it. But I could also dig into the orange baskets. For heaven's sake - I have TWO baskets of orange. They are easy to assess but I don't remember the last time I went through the baskets. I usually grab something on top without moving them because they are overflowing.

The stash of oranges

I did pull them out and they are on one of the work tables as I pet my way through the two baskets. I'm going to make an orange quilt. Matter of fact, I better two or three or more orange quilts! What the heck am I saving it for? So it can accompany me as I'm cremated? Good grief - that's just sad.

And to make matters worse, I'm now showing you a picture of MORE fabric that I bought. HELP!!! These were grab bags of Halloween fabric and buttons that were priced to move and it moved into my shopping basket. I know - I have a sickness but it's somewhat under control compared to the past.

Halloween bundles of 10" squares and loads of Halloween Buttons

Yesterday was a totally crazy day - not only with the weather. I entered my 3-hour class and the sun was shining. Left the class in a total downpour. The class was on machine quilting and the students went home with their heads crammed with information. They are probably still trying to process all that information. Then I went to another class at the other store. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Now if you're at home and you'd like to know what I know and can't take a machine quilting class with me, it's easy. All the information that I spew out in my class (well most of it) is all online. Really???  You didn't know that?  Let's not forget that I blog for QUILTsocial and I need material to blog about. If you go to QUILTsocial and in the search bar you type "Machine quilting by Elaine Theriault", you get a lot of links. Not all of them are mine - so you want to be sure to just get my links!! Type in "binding by Elaine Theriault" and you get mostly my blog posts. Here's the actual link for the binding links.  Seriously, you need to check it out. At some point, I'll post a brief description of what's in each blog post and post that in a tutorial page for you. Will try to do that soon!

Here's a good reason why. One of the ladies on Monday was complaining about the tension on her machine. I took one look at her machine and suggested she change how she had the machine threaded. Problem solved! 

Now I have some other links for you to enjoy today.

If you want to know about standard mattress sizes and standard batting sizes, you can check out this link.  That's good information to have on hand. It's amazing when I hear the discussion sometimes - how big is a queen sized mattress, how big should I make the quilt, etc. Now it's all laid out for you.

OH - I guess that's the only link I have today. The other link I had left open is related to Quilt Market which would be boring.

And this next point is a happy/sad situation. One of my classes today is canceled. While I'm disappointed because it was going to be a fun class, I'm kind of glad because I have so much to do and so little time. Once I'm finished my ongoing classes this morning, I'll be back home and heads down at the computer - writing. And I have to clean up the studio but I got word that one person had to cancel which is sort of good (for me, not for the lady who had to cancel - it was because of bad news she had to cancel), but now I have an empty corner in the studio that I can tuck stuff away!

So I got some breathing room and I'm grateful for that. I feel like an airline who overbooks with the hopes (and the past history to prove it) that things do work out and everyone gets to their destination eventually!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!  I've got to get this post done by 7:30 so when Trixy checks - the post is up for her!!!  I'll explain that some day. But lately the posts have been taking a bit of time to write and I couldn't get it done by the time the girls WANTED their walk so I had to walk them and then finish the post!!! Routines!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Now I'm confused

OK - so I took a day off the other day. I shouldn't have. I don't have time to take a day off, but I did. I wanted to visit the Textile Museum to see the Color Improvisations 2 exhibit. The exhibit has been at the museum since the end of May, but as usual, I wait until the last minute since the show closes on Sunday. 

I decided to save myself some money and coordinated it so I could get a ride to and from downtown with DH. It was like a daytime date! He had some meetings and wasn't going to be gone all day so I tagged along. 

The museum didn't open until 11 so I got a bit of time to wander around. Yikes - there are TONS of people downtown. I used to work downtown Montreal but that was years ago. I'm not sure I could handle the hustle and bustle anymore!

I managed to snap a photo of the TORONTO sign. Gosh - I think that is the first time I see that sign in person, although I was around the corner from the sign when we started our bike trip last month. 

The TORONTO sign

I'm fascinated by the tall buildings. And these aren't even the tallest ones. While I think it would be very cool to live downtown, work downtown and play downtown - it just isn't my thing. But it could be a cool lifestyle. I was informed that when we retire, we're going to buy a condo at the St. Regis. A studio apartment with 642 sq ft is up for grabs for $650K. I think I'll pass. 

Downtown Toronto

Anyway - back to the exhibit? How many of you went to this show? Did you like it? 

The title of the exhibit is Color Improvisations 2 - An international exhibition of contemporary quilts. The show was curated by Nancy Crow. Nancy has been around for many years as an artist - should we say a quilt artist? or that her medium is quilting? I just had a quick peek at her website. She teaches workshops at her studio. The deposit is listed at $250 for a five-day workshop. I wonder what the price is? I couldn't find it. But the studio space looks amazing!

Anyway, she's done lots of stuff in the art quilt world. She's taught many students around the world and the quilts in this exhibition were made specifically for this exhibit. All of them were the same size which is LARGE. Some had touches of handwork in them, many were done by machine, many had facings instead of bindings (actually now that I think of it, most of them had facings - maybe all of them).

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and loved the solids (or hand-dyed) fabrics in the quilts. Lots of beautiful quilting on most, others not so much. But that's OK. 

There is a catalog of the show but it was sold out so I put my name on the list. 

The show catalog (well - it's a book!)

The book is nicely done (not cheap - $45 which I guess isn't that bad) and shows all the quilts in the exhibit as well as others and a nice bio of the artists. None whose name I recognized. Remember - these are ARTISTS, not quilters. So I think if I had to peg Nancy - she is NOT a quilter. She's an artist. OK - so she's an art quilter!

So here's the confusion and we have this discussion each time we meet for the West End Modern Quilt Guild. What is the difference between MODERN and CONTEMPORARY quilts? Yes - can anyone answer that question?  Because there were many quilts in this display that I would peg as modern and there are many quilts in our guild or at Quiltcon that are contemporary. 

So I googled it. WHOA!!!!   Now I'm totally confused. Did you know that MODERN in the art world essentially is more related to a period when Modern art was created starting in 1860!!!!  Here's a link, but I think this topic needs a whole blog post on its own. Interesting..............

I did check out the second show at the Textile Museum which is called Crosscurrents: Canada in the making. This show had a variety of quilts and other beautiful handcrafted textiles from beading to embroidery and quillwork (made with porcupine quills). It was an interesting show as well. 

There was a beautiful embroidery quilt that was obviously a fundraiser. You can catch a snippet of the quilt at the main page of the Textile Museum.  

Actually, there are sales coming up. I know in the past that I've found some amazing stuff at these "garage sales". Essentially people donate stuff to the museum and they turn around and sell it to raise funds. I'm sure those volunteers always get first pick at what comes in! A good reason to become a volunteer!!!  

But they have classes and lectures as well. There is an interesting lecture coming up next week. In my next life, I would love to delve more into the history of quilts and this would be interesting to attend. But I don't think I'm going to have the time and getting downtown for 6 PM would not be fun. I could take the train. It's just that this week, I've been out EVERY EVENING except one and next week is almost as bad. I think I'll stay home on Wednesday. 

There was a quote on the wall which I thought was most interesting. "Who is worthy of memory?" by Desmond Miller (he's the one doing the lecture). It's very thought-provoking. Which is why we want to label our quilts and leave something behind so that people will remember who we are. 

Let's not forget the gift shop. I always make time to browse through the items for sale and the books. They have used books for sale and that's what I ended up with - ONE used book for $8. See what they wrapped the book in? Old pattern tissue! I love that. 

Pattern tissue used to protect my book

And if someone buys a postcard or a card, they will use old pattern envelopes as the packaging. I love that!. I know - technically I did not need a bag (or I should have taken my own). I felt bad about that.

All in all, I'm glad that I took the time to visit the show. It helps to solidify my stance on what is a contemporary quilt and what is a modern quilt. I'll be sharing that at some point with you all.

Speaking of museums, I thought I'd share this with you as well. Mark Dunn is the owner of Moda and what I like about him is that he is interested in what he sells. He may not be a quilter, but he has an extensive quilt collection. There's a show currently at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska. Hmm - I wonder if DH has business in Lincoln???  Anyway, check out this story about his show.

I had some time to kill before meeting up with DH (we even had lunch together downtown!) so I took a walk around City Hall. WHOA!! Did you know that the gardens around the City Hall look like a wild field???  Right in the middle of the city. I've never been up on that elevated part. That was a shocker, but it looks great. It's a shame that people don't feel comfortable with that look. Like my neighbors who are still watering their grass at 5 AM in the morning. It would appear that MOST of the people on my street are watering their grass. What a total waste of resources. We need to STOP that and the lawns of those that water and those that don't? They look the same! People - the grass is very hardy! But I digress. Here's the picture.

Wild garden at City Hall

It's amazing what you discover when you start looking around.

Then I decided to start wandering back to our meeting place and I spotted this lady wearing the coolest dress ever. I got a picture of it. That's a great inspiration for something. Not sure what yet, but great inspiration. See - there is inspiration EVERYWHERE.

Great inspiration in that dress

Too bad - I missed an opportunity to experience virtual reality. The National Film Board had a 7-minute video that you could watch through the virtual reality glasses. It's right in Nathan Phillps Square. If I had my wits about me, I could have booked a viewing right when I arrived and would have had time to view the film before I left. But I didn't so I didn't get to see the movie. DRAT.  But it'll be shown at some upcoming festival. It looked very interesting. Toronto in the future and it was flooded!!!  Oh - I found the link to the exhibit.  Watch the video clip - it's pretty cool.  I wish I'd been smarter with my time so I could have watched the film.

I have to make mention of where I was last night. I was the speaker at the Kempenfelt Quilter's Guild in Barrie. What a great group of quilters!!  And what a surprise for me - I ran into some people that I haven't seen in a long time. It was so great to touch base again with them. A HUGE thanks to Brenda and Liz who took me out for a DELICIOUS dinner at Casa Mia. We had a great chat about quilting and what they've been up to. Thanks again ladies - it was loads of fun! 

The trunk show last night was GROUP quilts. So much fun and so many stories and so many memories. I'll be speaking next week at the Barrie Modern Quilt Guild. Only one or possibly two quilts will be the same as last night. If you're in the area - stop by. It's on Thursday, September 27 in the evening. The topic is MODERN quilts and I'd need to do a wee bit more research on that contemporary versus modern situation.

I should mention that I have my finish number 55 for the year. It's done and I have to pack it up and get it to the courier today. Sorry - you can't see it - not yet. There are a few more that are an hour or so away from being finished but I don't think that's going to happen this weekend. It's a totally insane weekend. I have TWO classes today, THREE tomorrow and a sit n sew on Sunday. Maybe during Sit n Sew, I'd better finish something. I know Diane is ahead of me and I can't let that happen.

On that note, I've got some prep work to do this morning and some writing.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!

Jelly roll rugs!

There's a lot of random stuff that's been happening so this post is going to be totally random in its subject matter.

I've posted pictures of my sometimes messy kitchen table and countertops. Well, some of that mess is still there - I'll show you why I'm struggling in a day or so. I did get rid of some stuff so I'm making progress, but I just can't seem to motivate myself to really tackle the job and get it done. I've got a thing for that. For the fun of it, I just googled "fear of finishing things". Yep - a quote came up. It appears that we're afraid to finish things because we're afraid of being judged or evaluated on the finished project.  Good god - you'd think I would WANT to finish cleaning up the paperwork so I could be judged in a POSITIVE light by actually getting the mess dealt with. It's probably my family history that keeps me from throwing a lot of stuff away. I feel comforted (seriously?) by having stuff around.

Speaking of which, someone who reads my blog and is in one of my classes (sorry - I can't remember who)  recommended that I read the book "They left us everything" by Plum Johnson. I was on the hold list (it's a pretty popular book these days) and it came in yesterday. Oh my! Yes - I started the book and can't wait to get into the meat of it when they start to clean out the 4,000 ft sq home that the parents lived in for 60 years. 

Anyway, I wanted to move the stuff from the kitchen into my office but the table was jammed with stuff. So I moved EVERYTHING off the table onto the desk. Now one surface is really bad and I'll pull stuff gradually off of that surface.

The desk is heaped with stuff

But the table doesn't look too bad and I think I could actually work there. Hopefully, this will help to keep the mess off the kitchen table. I have something hilarious to share with you about this process but I'll save it for tomorrow.

The table at least has some open space to work

 Now I know that there are those of you who would say - just take two hours and get it tidied up, throw away what you don't want or need. Yes - in theory, it's simple. In practical terms - it's not. I'll share that process with you as I work through it. You'll see what I mean.

Bottom line - the kitchen table is clear and there's barely anything sitting on the floor in the office. That is HUGE. That means that progress is being made - just not super fast. It used to be a whole lot worse in here.

The other day, I thought I MUST get that jelly roll rug finished. So I got myself installed at my sewing table. My table is built by Horn and it's heavy, but I love it. Here's a link to my cabinet. I don't have the fancy set of drawers as shown in the picture - I bought two plastic rolling drawer units that fit perfectly under the left-hand side of the cabinet. Much cheaper and probably more storage space. On the right-hand side is that little shelf. Mine didn't come with that, but I had a friend build one and attach it. Mine is also NOT an airlift (whatever that means).  But I still paid a lot of money for it.

There are other brands out there and all of them are probably equal in quality and value. This was the one available to me when I needed one. I really need to be using it more!

Anyway, I knew that setting my sewing machine into the cabinet and having all that space around was going to make finishing off the jelly roll rug a whole lot easier. I was right. It was a snap to get that rug finished. Gosh - I'm running out of chairs in the studio. It appears that there's something on almost every chair so I had to resort to my stool and even that I had to move stuff off. It's a HUGE mess down there. HUGE and I have 8 people coming to sew on Sunday. A wee bit of work to do before they come.

This morning as I was working, I thought to myself that I really ought to move everything out of the main space and bring in ONLY what I need/want to finish before the end of the year. Who am I kidding when I think I can get everything done? Mind you there is a LOT of stuff to finish before the end of the year so that probably won't help the situation at all!

Anyway, here I am stitching the rug. BTW - mine was NOT made with a jelly roll. I just cut strips from leftover yardage.

Stitching the rug

Let's just say that making a jelly roll rug is a PHYSICALLY demanding job. Not that it's super difficult, but turning those corners - yikes. That was hard.

I decided that I needed more room to support that rug so I opened up the drawer and added the top to it. That was much better. I seriously can't imagine sewing this rug without the sewing cabinet.

Much better to have that extra work surface

 And look - I'm almost done!!!! That big ball of "yarn" is now much smaller.

Almost done!

I've managed to keep it pretty flat. There are a couple of ridges in the rug but I'm hoping that after the rug has been pressed under a flat surface for a while that it will compress.  I was thinking of slipping it underneath the mattress. But I delivered the rug to Oh Look Fabric where I'll be teaching a class and she was going to slip it under a big heavy mat that she had in the store. Hopefully, that'll flatten it out a wee bit.

Notice that the rug is pretty flat!

Here's the final rug. If you want to see it in person, it's at Oh Look Fabric. When I posted the picture on Instagram, everyone loved the color. This is a Northcott fabric from a couple of years ago. It was called Artisan Spirit Nature Studies in the teal colorway. This was the first collection that I got to play with when I started and we made a ton of quilts for Quilt Market. I have a few scraps leftover. The rug used up some!

The rug is finished

That makes finish number 54 for the year. I'm sure that Diane is ahead of me by now. I'm not getting much finished these days although I have TWO more items to finish today.

I'll be teaching the jelly roll rug at Oh Look Fabric on October 17 at 7 PM. I should mention that we are making the RECTANGULAR rug in the class. All the techniques are the same and WAY easier than the oval, especially in a classroom setting. You'll get all the techniques to do the oval but you can do that when you're at home and have tons of space to work.

You can buy rolls of batting to use in the rug, but I had TWO bags of cut off pieces of batting from trimming quilts. I've sorted through one of the bags and I got this. Well, this is what I didn't use in the first rug. I think I have a wee bit of strips ready for the next rug.

Batting strips for the jelly roll rug

Got the fabric chosen, just need the time to make it happen.

I taught a rope bowl class the other night at Oh Look Fabric and look how happy the ladies are with their finished bowls.

Happy participants in the rope bowl class

Seriously, these two were rock stars. They just got to work and zipped through those bowls like they'd made them before. Notice how different the shape of each of the bowls is? Yes - you can never guess how they will turn out. I really want to make some more and I've quite the stash of clothesline in the studio. Got a couple of ideas. But no time.

What was really nice was to see these ladies who were both moms who worked full-time, but they want to sew! And they are sewing clothing and other small items. One of the ladies is a new mom and making all kinds of baby things (burp cloths, receiving blankets, etc) for her friends who were also having babies. It's nice to see the younger generation sewing!!! 

I thought it was time to empty my scrap basket on the cutting table. It was getting a wee bit full and nothing would stay in it anymore. It's now emptied and ready for the next cutting marathon.

Overflowing scrap basket

Yes - I did dump those in the garbage. I thought of saving them for Diane who is making cat mats but she has enough of her own scraps. I think I can afford to throw something out.

Well, I had loaded more pictures, but I'm running out of time so I'll reload them tomorrow.  Oh shoot now I have to change the title of the blog because the original title was related to the pictures I saved for tomorrow.

In case you're wondering about that errand that I needed to get done or I'd go to jail. Well, it wasn't quite that bad and certainly not jail worthy, but I could have got a fine for it. Yes - the silly license plate sticker on my car had expired at the end of August. Now I know that it's not a huge task to renew, however I needed to get an emissions test. That got done last week and I was all prepped to go into the office to renew the plate earlier this week. Then I noticed on the form that I could do it online. Hmm - will they let me renew even though the plate is expired? Why not give it a whirl. It worked!! I was able to renew that plate online so now I'm waiting for the sticker. At least I've paid! I won't get a fine.

Speaking of paperwork, I'm having some pretty productive mornings with the paperwork so that won't happen again, although I'm now set up to get the notification on e-mail, not in the mail. I'd better start paying BETTER attention to e-mail although I have two years before the renewal is due.

Have a super day!!!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. I almost couldn't sleep last night as I contemplate what the next couple of days holds in store for me as far as prep work, classes, lectures, and blog posts. Never mind the long arm or the sewing machine. I'm not going to think about - just do what I can.

Ciao!!

On your mark, get set, GO!

There's nothing like a good workout at the gym to get those creative juices flowing. I cranked out 32 K this morning on the spin bike and I feel great. I think the more we learn to push ourselves, the more we believe in ourselves and the more things are possible.

This morning I thought I would share my new toy with you. Joyce - please do NOT laugh. I've resisted this tool for a long time. I truly felt it was wasteful, too slow, expensive, and well, I wasn't interested in getting one.

I've chatted with many people over the last year or so and had the good fortune to borrow one of these tools from time to time over the past year.

What is it???  It came in a box like this.

I think you know where this is going.......

I find this inside that brown box. This box is much more exciting.

GO! cutter

I love that it's super easy to set up. Take the cutter out of the green carrying bag. Open the two sides and you're ready to go. Couldn't be easier than that.  Sorry for the mess on the cutting table - there's a LOT going on right now in the studio.

The GO! cutter is set up in mere seconds and ready to cut

I'm fortunate that I'm able to borrow a fair number of dies so I didn't have to go out and make a huge investment in dies right away. Yes, the cost of the dies can add up so if you have someone you can share them with, that helps a lot. I was sharing a cutter, but that was becoming a nuisance to carry that back and forth. Now we can just share the dies (although I've got a wee little stash of dies already).  A HUGE THANKS to accuquilt for their part in making this a reality.

Why did I break down and get a cutter? I teach applique and I want the students to be able to get right to the stitching as that's the critical part of having beautiful applique. Now I can prepare kits of pre-fused shapes for them to stitch. Isn't that a brilliant idea? BTW - I'm teaching an applique quilt this weekend at The Hobby Horse so if you want to be the first one to dig into my pre-fused shapes to practice your stitching - you'd better sign up fast! The quilt is a Kimberbell pattern called Hello Sunshine. 

I fused a piece of Steam a seam to the wrong side of a chunk of fabric. I just grabbed something that I knew I wasn't going to use in a quilt. (or so I thought!). I cut the pre-fused fabric into strips that coordinated with the size of the first die I used - the heart. There are three sizes of hearts. I fan folded my strips and I got two big hearts in mere seconds. Now, how cool is that. I also learned that it's better to fold the fabric sides together, not the Steam a Seam side! Oh yes - I'll go into my hints and tips in another post.

First two shapes cut on the GO! cutter

Here's a shot of running the die and the fabric through the GO! cutter. You need a plastic mat to put on top of the die and the fabric. The mat protects the cutting blade, it provides a cushion to make the right thickness as it goes through the cutter and keeps the fabric from shifting. Anyway - you NEED that mat. Give the handle a crank and the die rolls through the center and you get shapes on the other side.

The die is partially through the cutter

One of the other reasons, I wasn't keen on the die cutter was the waste. So once I had cut my two large hearts, I cut a medium heart and then I managed to cut three small hearts. This is what was left of my strip.

Leftover after cutting my hearts

I cut a few more strips and cut more hearts in various sizes.  

More hearts in various sizes

I had this scrap leftover. And I threw it in the garbage. I thought to myself who would keep this small of a scrap or what would you do with that. So yep, I threw it in the garbage.

Scraps from the die cutter went in the garbage

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!  My pioneer spirit just couldn't let me do that. There was still some fair sized pieces. Not big enough for the smallest heart, but I have other dies.

I pulled the scrap mess from the garbage and I grabbed a due that had circles and leaves/petals on it. I cut and cut and this is what I had leftover. There was literally SCRAPS leftover.  Nothing of any size was left. 

Now this is what I call scraps

I know - you're asking yourself why I would do that. Well -- because. I like to make stuff from what others would throw away. I thought the circles would be great to offer the applique class to practice their stitching on. Also, the leaves/petals will be good for practicing the points. They are small - so what - a point is a point. 

This is what I managed to cut from the smaller than a fat quarter chunk of fabric. I didn't count how many there were of each shape. I also used a large flower shape which will also be good for applique practice.

All the shapes were cut from LESS than a fat quarter

Now I have to find a place to store those shapes. I found a tin, but I'm going to put each shape into a plastic bag so they are easy to find.

Temporary storage for my applique shapes

Here's a picture of the three dies that I used to cut those shapes.

Dies used to cut the shapes

I have a lot more dies to try out. Now it's just to find the time, but I'm rummaging through those fabric baskets to find other bright colored fabric that I won't likely cut up to use in a quilt. Oh boy!

Now as I was cutting those shapes, TWO other uses for those shapes came to mind. Not one, but TWO. It's just too easy for those creative juices to flow at my house. My brain never stops and even when I'm supposed to be huffing and puffing on that bike in the morning, my brain is still working in the background thinking up things to make.

Will I share those two projects with you? I will when they get done!  I need a few extra colors before I can start either of them, but I can't wait. There are a few deadlines ahead of me at the moment. This week is shaping up to be totally crazy.

I had better write those ideas down because I've been known to forget things! Not only are there those two projects, but there's a magazine quilt as well that is made using the die cuts. You'll have to wait a bit to see that one as I haven't even started making it yet, although the fabric is in the studio.

The GO! cutter comes with a die that cuts a large square, a small square and two half square triangles. I didn't think I would use that die, but you know what? This will be perfect to cut squares to add to the applique practice kit.

Hmm - a matter of fact, I've just come up with another idea. And I might put together kits so that the students can try the same shape, same color fabric, but use different stitches and different colored threads. OH YES!!!   Anyone want to buy a kit? I've been wanting to do that forever but didn't want to take the time to prep the pieces. Well, that won't be a deterrent anymore.  Bring on the applique kits!!! HEY - I have to make this very type of thing for my other job as a freelance educator for SVP (Singer, Viking, PFAFF).  OH -  my to-do list just got a whole lot longer.

And just like that, I have a new project to keep me entertained for a long, long time.

On that note, I'd better get myself moving for the day.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!